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Tabs group

Description

This family contains flies that resemble bees or some species of wasps, but especially honeybees: their bodies are covered in a hairy integument, like soft fur, in various colours depending on the species. The single pair of wings often has dark markings. These insects are 4 to 40 mm long.

Life cycle

Most bee flies are parasites. Their larvae develop on or inside the larvae of various other groups of insects.

The females often lay their eggs in an underground nest near the host. The newly hatched larvae then have to move to become parasitic on the host that will serve as their food source. The subsequent larvae stages are immobile: they stay either inside (endoparasites) or on the outside of (ectoparasites) their host.

Most of the larvae feed by attaching their mouthparts to the host’s body (often a larva) in order to aspirate its contents.

A number of bee fly species are parasites of the larvae of nest-dwelling bees and wasps. To emerge from these shelters, the insects in the pupal stage use their stiff protuberances to drill their way out. The adults then emerge.

French name

Bombyles

English name

Bee flies

Class

Insecta

Order

Diptera

Family

Bombyliidae

Consult

Habitat/Diet

Habitat

These dipterans are found in various types of open, dry habitats, like cultivated fields, sand dunes, meadows and peat bogs.

Diet

The adults are flower flies, pollinators or visitors, feeding on the pollen and nectar of various plant families.

Did you know?

Interesting facts

This family includes more than 5,000 species around the world, some 800 of them in Canada and the United States. In North America, it is easy to observe species belonging to genus Bombylius, which are active in early spring.

In describing the larva’s method of feeding, in which it sucks out the bodily liquids of its prey, the famous entomologist Fabre said that “Its attack is a mere kiss, but what a perfidious kiss.”

Ecological roles

Adult bee flies are pollinators.

The parasitic larvae help control populations of various insects. Most of these flies are ectoparasites (external parasites). Others are endoparasites (they grow inside the host), and some others, including members of genus Lepidophora, are kleptoparasites (they are parasitic on the larvae other insects store as food). Some bee flies are predators, occasionally feeding on insect eggs.

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Space for Life brings together the Biodôme, the Insectarium, the Jardin botanique and the Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan on the same site.These four prestigious institutions of the City of Montreal form the largest natural science complex in Canada.